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Book Buzz: James Patterson dominates USA TODAY's book list

Here's a look at what's buzzing in the book world today: Dynamic duo: Two summers ago, the prolific James Patterson, who has broken most bookselling records, tried releasing two books on the same day — a

Dynamic duo: Two summers ago, the prolific James Patterson, who has broken most bookselling records, tried releasing two books on the same day — a thriller for adults and an illustrated comic novel for kids. He said it's his way to "remind parents that it's part of their job to find books their kids will enjoy." He did another dual release last week. The thriller Second Honeymoon, written with Howard Roughan, lands atop USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list published July 4. His illustrated kids' novel Middle School: How I Survived Bullies, Broccoli, and Snake Hill, written with Chris Tebbetts, lands at No. 30. Patterson (with Maxine Paetro) also has novels at Nos. 33 and 49. – Bob Minzesheimer

Doing some damage: A "new adult" romance that's as steamy as the weather in much of the country proves once again that sex sells. H.M. Ward's romance Damaged 2, a sequel to her April best seller, lands at No. 3. That's Ward's highest debut. Damaged landed at No. 10 in April and moved up to No. 2. "New adult" is a potent new book category aimed at readers out of high school. It fills a gap between young adult (or YA, for readers ages 12-18) and commercial women's fiction for readers in their 20s or older. Another young-adult romance, Jamie McGuire's Walking Disaster, was No. 1 in April. -- Minzesheimer

Summer getaway: Plenty of readers want to escape to Nantucket, Mass., during the summer — by way of novelist Elin Hilderbrand. With the debut of her latest Nantucket-set book, Beautiful Day, Hilderbrand achieves her highest spot ever on the list, No. 8. Her previous highest ranking was No. 11 in summer 2008 with Barefoot, and Summerland hit No. 14 last July. In Beautiful Day, a summer wedding sparks trouble between the couple's families. – Jocelyn McClurg

New paperbacks: Oh summer, the season of beach reads and impulse purchases at bookstores in airports. USA TODAY's Jocelyn McClurg highlights the best new paperbacks, including The Bat by Jo Nesbo and titles from Tom Wolfe and Dave Eggers.

Google beats authors: An appeals court has ruled that author organizations like the Authors Guild cannot collectively sue Google over its digital library, which they claimed infringed copyrights by scanning more than 20 million books without permission.

Austen camp: Who needs arts and crafts or the great outdoors when there's a camp celebrating Jane Austen? In honor of the bicentennial of Pride and Prejudice, The Paris Review's Ted Scheinman kept a diary of his time at "Jane Austen summer camp" at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Happy Birthday, Kafka: In honor of what would be Franz Kafka's 130th birthday, check out today's Google doodle, inspired by the philosopher and author.

Reading around the world: Where in the world do people read the most? Check out this nifty infographic from Russia Beyond Headlines that compares how much time people in 30 different nations read books, compiled using data from the World Culture Score Index. (h/t The New Yorker).